1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to disease prediction, and more particularly, to a disease diagnoses-based disease prediction system.
2. Related Art
In the medical field, diagnoses of existing diseases for a subject (also referred to herein as “patient”) are generally made by a clinician, such as a physician, veterinarian, or other health care provider, based on a variety of information, including interviews, examinations and tests of the subject. These interviews, examinations and tests may be conducted over a period of time, during which notes and records about such events are generated and retained. The tests may include analysis of biological fluids drawn or received from the subject, such as blood or urine, for signs and/or symptoms (also referred to herein as “biomarkers”) of one or more diseases. However, the interpretation of such interviews, examinations and test results involve the subjective analysis by the clinician which may result in an inaccurate diagnosis.
Even when a subject is correctly diagnosed with a disease, such interviews, examinations and tests fail to directly provide information about diseases which the subject may have in the future. The prediction of the subject's future diseases has traditionally involved a trained clinician's use of general medical knowledge or studies regarding the interrelationships between diseases, for example patterns recognized in which the diagnosis of an existing disease in a subject appears to occur prior to the occurrence of other diseases. As with interpreting information such as biomarkers, this application of medical knowledge is subjective and may vary from clinician to clinician. Another proposed method for predicting a subject's future diseases is to create a large collection of biomarkers and associate diseases, and then to apply pattern recognition systems to the subject's biomarkers in order to predict future diseases for a particular subject.